General practice for all quality records, and code can be considered a quality record, never post-date anything. Especially code because it’s so discoverable by cross-checkable references.
Has anybody been prosecuted for this? Probably not, but if an investigation finds that records were intentionally falsified with intent to deceive / cover up problems, that can lead to very costly regulatory responses. Even a minor regulatory response noting practices of inaccurate dates on records is still costly to the business that note is made on.
I had a vibe coding coworker take over a project. Added 8,000 lines of documentation all dated 6 months in the future.
That’s forward thinking! (and illegal in my industry.)
You have laws about your code comments?
General practice for all quality records, and code can be considered a quality record, never post-date anything. Especially code because it’s so discoverable by cross-checkable references.
Has anybody been prosecuted for this? Probably not, but if an investigation finds that records were intentionally falsified with intent to deceive / cover up problems, that can lead to very costly regulatory responses. Even a minor regulatory response noting practices of inaccurate dates on records is still costly to the business that note is made on.